Introduction to SFF Transceivers

What is SFF Transceiver?

SFF (Small Form Factor) is welded small package optical transceiver usually with 2×5 or 2×10 pinout, with the general speed of less than 1250Mbps and using LC interface. Small Form Factor (SFF) Transceiver Multi-source Agreement (MSA) was established by defines the package outline, circuit board layout, and pin function definition.SFF small package optical transceiver adopts advanced precision optics and integrated circuit process, those make it is 25% smaller than SFP cage assemblies, 30% smaller than traditional 1×9 transceivers or 70% smaller than GBIC optics.The SFF package allows designers of Gigabit Ethernet networking equipment to maximize their use of available board space. Figure 1 SFP+ Typical SFF 2×5 Transceiver

Types of SFF Transceiver

Transceivers	Types
Data Rate	155Mbps SFF,622Mbps SFF,1250Mbps SFF,2488Mbps SFF,4250Mbps SFF
Operation Temperature	Standard SFF,Industrial SFF
Others	CWDM SFF,BIDI SFF,Duplex SFF

 

The difference between SFF, GBIC, 1×9 and SFP

Transceivers	Mechanical Dimension	Data Rate	Connector	Pinout	Support Hot Pluggable	MSA Compliant
1×9	Medium	0.5Mb,2Mb,155Mb,622Mb,1.25Gb,2.5Gb	SC,FC,ST or Pigtail	9 Pin	NO	NA
SFF	Smallest	155Mb,622Mb,1.25Gb,2.5Gb,4.25Gb	LC,SC	2×5 Pin,2×10 Pin	No	SFF MSA
GBIC	Biggest	155Mb,622Mb,1.25Gb	SC	20 Pin	No	GBIC MSA
SFP	Medium	155Mb,622Mb,1.25Gb,2.5Gb,4.25Gb,6Gb	LC	20 Pin	Yes	SFP MSA